by Virginia J. Flo, Director of Volunteer Relations
“Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!” (Psalm 4:1)
Repeatedly I have heard the words the “Power of Prayer.” It makes you wonder sometimes because the results of our prayers are not always visible to us, especially in the timeline for which we ask. Are we asking for too much? Is God tired of hearing from us? Why doesn’t He answer us when we think He should?
Often our timing is off, not His. We don’t see the big picture as He sees it, and maybe more things need to unfold before He opens the gate and gives us what we really need. Sometimes we can sit back when everything is over and see something happened that we just couldn’t even imagine. Didn’t you feel a little bit that way on June 24 when our Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade? Who would have thought after 49 years that could even have happened? Many people today weren’t even born before abortion on demand was legal in America, so they have no understanding of what it would be like to live in a country without legalized abortion.
Well, it isn’t quite a country without abortion, as there are states which are now becoming tourist spots to travel to and have an abortion. I happen to live in one of those states, so I hear first-hand, especially in the media, the misleading messages going out daily about the need for abortion. I hear everything from the expansion of Planned Parenthood facilities to setting up tents at our border towns or the purchasing of traveling abortion vans to mobilize abortions. Yet, I also know that God can remove abortion as the law of the land, and He certainly can also remove it in my state. I continue to pray that will happen. Won’t you please join me in that prayer?
Something else significant happened in the past few years, and I want to share it with you. It is worth sharing as it has everything to do with prayer. In 2016, at our national conference in Bloomington, Minnesota, we did an offsite servant event that included a prayer walk by an abortion facility in Minneapolis. We didn’t stop very long on that walk, but everyone in our two groups stopped and prayed. We surely haven’t been the only ones over the years to stand in front of that abortion facility and pray. Yet, if you were not aware, in November 2018 that facility performed its last abortion two years after we were there praying. That news is worth sharing even a few years later. After many years of performing abortions at that site, it is closed. It’s that simple. Our walk may have seemed insignificant that day, but it was part of a much bigger plan God had in mind. And He did it.
I could go on and on about this, but the simple fact is that abortion facility is and has been closed since November 2018. The owner and doctor performing the abortions was renowned for her work in the abortion industry where, in addition to running her own facility, she served as the medical director for Planned Parenthood in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota for nearly thirty years. I am not mentioning her name as she should not be the focus. She was quoted as saying that if Roe v. Wade was repealed, she thought she would just continue doing abortions. Well, the Lord had a different plan, and she never had to fulfill that statement as she passed away in 2015. Her daughter, also an abortionist, continued running the abortion facility after her mother’s passing. And that lasted three years until the facility was finally closed in November 2018. Praise the Lord!
If closing that facility can happen in a state where abortion is still legal, it can happen anywhere. Please rejoice in knowing prayer works and keep praying for the states who still haven’t banned abortions and for those states trying to ward off those who want to bring it back. We are not done praying and never will be. God is on our side, and He has a plan. We need to stand firm and with faith never give up praying. God controls the power of prayer, and He is amazing.